A BETTER ME 2019

Hurray, it's a brand new year. I believe you are particularly grateful to God for making you see this new year. We at Living Waters Blog appreciate God for the lives of all our readers and future readers across the globe. We appreciate Him for the divine health, blessings, favours, mercies, wisdom, challenges, setbacks, missed opportunities and the ones utilized and finally for the all round growth all our readers experienced in 2018. We love you all deeply and specially. So, we say welcome to 2019, Your year of fulfilled promises.
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          Wow, so it is another year and so many new year resolutions would be floating around. So many social media status of people saying, "I am going to do this or that". Yes, it is that season where humanity is inspired, motivated and surging with fresh energy to pursue their life dreams, set goals they want to achieve and it is very very normal. Infact it is abnormal if you are not motivated to set goals and resolutions for this new year God has brought you into. So this morning, I will not only be teaching you how to become a better person in 2019, I will also be showing you how to do it right. So firstly, why do you have to set new year resolutions and do assessment?
1. You need to carry out an assessment of 2018, so you will actually know your shortcomings, strengths and weaknesses.
2. You need to carry out an assessment of 2018, so you would know the areas you need to improve on in 2019.
3. You need to set goals in 2019, so you won't repeat the same mistakes of 2018.
4. You need to set goals for 2019 if you don't want to be worse off than you were in 2018.
5. Setting goals for 2019 gives you a sense of focus and as such you will be able to realise opportunities when they come your way.
6. Setting goals for 2019 helps you prioritize your time and activities and makes you more responsible.
       Above are just 6 reasons amongst many more why you should assess how 2018 was for you, set new goals and new year resolutions. I am very sure that some other reasons why you should are also popping up in your head. So, before I teach you how to set goals and properly achieve them. Let me make you realise a point. Every human alive today has five aspects of their lives common to everyone. So if you want to be a better you in 2019, you shouldn't just see goals for one aspect alone which many of us do. So what are the five aspects of lives common to every human being?
1. RELATIONSHIP LIFE :
            This aspect is common to every human but may be a little different for each of us. For some, it would be that they are married, so for such persons this aspect becomes their Marital and social life. While some aren't but are dating, so for such persons it becomes their Dating and social life. Some are either celibates or not yet dating or married. For such persons, this aspect becomes their Relations life, how well they interact with persons. So you see that to set goals in this aspect of your life is important and it is not something that's would be done by just you. It should involve you and your partner, if you are dating or married. Questions to ask include: what mistakes did you guys make in 2018?, how was the relationship like?,  what were you guys shortcomings?, what improvements can you guys make?, are you guys any closer to your dream relationship or marriage?
2. INTELLECTUAL LIFE :
            This is one aspect of human life that has suffered terribly especially among Africans. Many do not realise that they also have the intellectual aspect of their lives. They mistake reading and studying as something that only students and academians should do. That's why we have so many backward thinkers in Africa. So whether you are a student or not, married or single, businessman or Civil servant, a minister of the God's word or a church member, you too have an intellectual life. So when setting your goals you have to ask yourself, how many books have I read in business, relationship or marriage, academics, ministry etc that can sharpen my intellect?, how many seminars did I attend? You can even go as as far as saying the number of books you want to read in each of the aspects of your life I will be teaching in this write up. You should realise that the strength and the improvements you make in this aspect will actually determine how improved the other aspects of your life would be.
3. SOCIAL LIFE:
      This is another aspect of human life, when we talk about it, persons are only restricted to those who go to parties or party alot or who have lots of friends. Whether or not you party or have lots of friends, you too have a social life. It may just need some improvements. Questions to ask include: How many new friends did I make and keep in 2018?, how many fights, quarrels, disagreements did you get into friends?  Was it often or rare? How may persons did you lose their friendship? How was your attitude, dress sense, communication skills, interaction skills in 2018? How can you improve them in 2019?
4. FINANCIAL LIFE :
           Wow, I literally do not really need to write much about this aspect. Everyone had a financial life. Whether working or unemployed, businessman or a Civil servant. We all do. Despite the knowledge of us all having this aspect of life, we tend either not to set the right goals or even ask the right set of questions that would aid us in achieving good set goals. The right questions to set include: How was my spending habit in 2018?, how much savings did I bring forward into 2018?, What was my cash flow like?, were my expenses above my income?, Did I open up more sources of income?, Did I meet my financial target for 2018?, What terrible financial mistakes did I make in 2018? How can I improve in 2019. You may not be working yet but in one way or the other money comes into your hand, so you are supposed to also set goals for yourself in this area. The kind of goals you set determine if you want to make more money or build your wealth, if you want to be financially stable or financially free.
5. SPIRITUAL LIFE:
         I chose to treat this last because this is very common to us especially as believers. It is true that the spiritual controls the physical. It is true that if you settle it spiritually, physically it will become much more easier for you. But we have overemphasized this aspect to the detriment of others. When people set goals for the year, they normally concentrate only on the financial and spiritual life. Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to down play the relevance of this aspect, I am only saying balance is required. For you to be a better you in 2019, you need to balance all these aspects of your life and set goals for all of them. Secondly, persons set the wrong kind of goals in this aspect. You dry people setting goals like how many times they finished reading the bible, how many times they went to church, how many appointments or elections into church leadership they had. Rather the right kind of goals or questions to set in this aspect include: How was your relationship with God?,  Was it smooth, cool or great or managing?, were you consistent in your quiet time? Did you really grow spiritually?  Can you pinpoint the areas you did? How was your understanding of scriptures? Trust me this is very vital, a lot of persons are busy preaching junks in the name of mysteries. Did you really bear fruits for God in 2018?
       So we have treated the five aspects of life common to every human, now let's look at how to set goals properly for 2019.
1. Please know that nobody ever said, you should plan for 2019 only when you get to 2019. You don't plan for an exam when you get to an exam hall, you do so months before the exam. I started planning for 2019 since last year November. If you haven't planned for 2019, it is not too late, the year is still young.
2. Realise that goal setting doesn't take a few minutes or hours or one day. Proper goalsetting involves deep thinking and positive criticism, so it may take you up to two weeks. Don't be in a hurry, don't rush it but really take time and do it properly.
3. Have a notebook, where you can your goals achieves yosu hope to achieve them. I started writing down my goals, assessments of previous years and how to achieve my new year goals in 2014. I can tell you dearly beloved, there has been great improvements in all aspects of my life. But now, I have two books, One for drawing plans, editing, correcting until they became something concrete which I can transfer into my book of goals. You are not serious about anything except you have planned and written down the plans.
4. Now you have been taught the five and very important aspects of every human life. Now, your number one in your book should be, "1. Assessment of 2018". Then begin to pick each of them and assess yourself in each of them. You can itemise them as 1a, 1b etc or any other way that works for you.
5. If you had written down your goals for 2018 before, after assessing you the compare your assessments to your goals for 2018, then you can clearly see your achievements, shortcomings and challenges. That becomes your number 2
6. Write down what you want your ultimate goals in life to be? Then what your ten years goals should be and lastly your five years goals in all these five areas. The essence of doing this is that it gives your goal setting a sense of direction not some emotional, impulsive stuff.
7. Write down what you want your one year goal to be in all the five aspects.
8. Write down decisive, precise and possible ways you can achieve your one year in all these aspects that should be related to your five years, ten and ultimate life goals.
9. Your goals should be realistic and flexible. You should believe you can achieve them. They should be achievable in your eyed. Dream about them, fantasize about them, obsess about them, be scared of them but continue to pursue them until you get them
       I hope you have been blessed by this write-up. Living waters wish you a happy new year, your year of fulfilled promises.
     If you realise that men need to hear the gospel more than any other thing in the world then assist us in increasing our world audience by being a constant visitor to the blog and see sharing of the blog as an opportunity to evangelise the gospel to the ends of the earth that you may never get to but internet has made possible. God bless you as you do so in Jesus name. Amen. Enjoy the rest of the year and we hope to bless you again next year. Remember the world is in dire need of the word of God, so join us spread this word. God bless you richly and do have a wonderful day. Shalom